The mission of Seattle Presbytery is to participate, in word and deed, in God’s transforming work through the Gospel of Jesus Christ: by strengthening the witness and mission of our congregations and members and by building strong partnerships with each other and the larger Christian community.

Events (Archive)

The Reverend Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), issued a statement today (Wednesday) in response to the bill signed by President Obama yesterday that will increase the debt-ceiling by more than $2 trillion and cut a roughly equivalent amount of spending from the U.S. budget.

In the statement, Parsons writes, “While I am pleased that the nation no longer faces the impending financial peril of default on our national debt, I am deeply troubled by the deficit-reduction package that Congress passed to get us to this place.”

According to Parsons, the budget package “does little to address the underlying causes of our mounting deficits.”

Parsons had joined a number of religious leaders in Washington the previous week to urge Congress “to enact a deficit-reduction plan that would require a greater contribution from those who have been blessed with plenty, and not to sacrifice the poor and vulnerable on the altar of political ideology or deficit reduction.”

The ecumenical and interfaith leaders had also reminded legislators that religious communities and charitable organizations do not have the resources to make up the difference between the spending cuts and the “growing and monumental need caused by a severe recession, anemic recovery, and systemic inequity.”

Parsons writes, “Private charity needs public partnership in order to answer our call to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison.”

Click here to read the full text of the article, and Gradye's message.